Mental health trust forced to cut services

The three local CCGs affected - NHS Central Manchester CCG, NHS North Manchester CCG and NHS South Manchester CCGs - said they had supported the cuts but that this did not mean they were not working to improve mental health services in Manchester.

A mental health trust in Manchester has cut seven front-line community-based services to save £1m, in one of the first major decisions taken since the city was given total control over its health budget.

Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust (MHSC) proposed the cuts in October and, despite a huge public outcry, decided last week to push through with plans.

The decision comes as Greater Manchester has been given complete control over its £6bn health budget following the implementation of ’DevoManc’, becoming the first region of England to have devolved healthcare powers.

Services to be cut include those for chronic fatigue and psychosexual disorders, as well as gardening therapies.

MHSC said: ‘The trust, like many others across the country, is working under tough financial pressures and it has been a difficult decision for the board to make but one which is supported by our commissioners.

‘The trust’s proposals have been designed to protect essential services.’

It added that it will reinvest £200,000 into a new citywide wellbeing service.

The three local CCGs affected – NHS Central Manchester CCG, NHS North Manchester CCG and NHS South Manchester CCGs – said they had supported the cuts but that this did not mean they were not working to improve mental health services in Manchester.

A spokesperson said: ‘Our priorities are around keeping people safe and well, which is why we are committed to a long-term Mental Health Improvement Programme in Manchester. And our funding of mental health services has grown by £7m from 2013/14 to 2015/16.’

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”